


Metal Bending

by Blue_Hood



Series: Power Prompts [5]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), X-Men (Movieverse)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Mutants, Gen, Metalbending & Metalbenders, Mutant Powers, Mutant Rights, Mutant Tony Stark, Mutants, Not Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, Pro-Sokovia Accords, Protective Erik, Sokovia Accords, Xavier Institute
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-11-11
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:55:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27211564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blue_Hood/pseuds/Blue_Hood
Summary: Expanding on Chapter 11 of the story What Superpower Should Tony Stark Have?What if Tony had Magneto's powers? What if he reunited Magneto and Professor X on accident? How would that change things for the Avengers?
Relationships: Clint Barton/Laura Barton, Erik Lehnsherr/Charles Xavier, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Series: Power Prompts [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1986601
Comments: 17
Kudos: 54





	1. Metal Bending: Revelations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 11 of What Powers Should Tony Stark Have? Excuse the time jumps, this was intended as a one-shot

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter isn't exactly like Chapter 11, I've gone through and done some more editing (for example, I cleaned up Tony and Pepper's conversation in this version) but they're close enough that you could still skip this chapter if you've read the original and not miss anything.

Tony had to remind himself to breathe and resist the urge to throw the cars right back but then Rhodey was falling and if he died then the Brotherhood might just get Magneto back, just not Erik Lehnsherr. With a scream of rage, he threw the smashed cars at Maximoff, pulled Rogers and Barnes back by their shield and arm respectively, caught Rhodey and threw Wilson, all at the same time. Pulling the wings off, he trapped Barton and picked up a part of a bumper to restrain the mystery man. Looking around, he shed his suit. "What the hell was that?" He screamed at Rogers "And don't give me any bullshit about the Accords." He turned to Black Panther "I wrote the Accords with your father, I know everything that went into them. Before Lagos," he turned back to where Rogers' lot were, "King T'Chaka was prepared to present them to us, not Ross. The US barred King T'Chaka entry as a power play. Coming out of centuries of isolation is no small feat," he again glanced at T'Challa when he spoke before focusing on Rogers "What the hell do you think you're doing? What is all this really about? I know for a fact, it isn't about the Accords. Despite the name, the Sokovia Accords were intended to be the first step towards equality. Do you have a goddamn clue what that mean?"

"Tony, you can't-"

"I'm a fucking mutant, Rogers! My people won't get their basic fucking rights if you fuck up the Accords! Don't tell me the Accords are evil when you didn't fucking read them! Millions of people, you are screwing over millions of children who can't help being mutants and even more humans who don't want to be fucking trampled by people like you and the Brotherhood. Stop the bullshit and tell me what is going on or so help me God, I will kill you to protect my people."

Sam Wilson spoke up "Zemo, the guy who triggered Barnes, he's going to Siberia to activate five more Winter Soldiers."

"Okay, thank you."

As he turned to walk away, the mystery man asked "Are the Accords really about mutant rights?"

"Yeah." Tony turned to him, "What'd you think they were?"

"A draft thing, like a mix between registration and Weapon X."

"You're a mutant?"

"Class Three, I think. My entire family was killed when our home got attacked and my brother panicked. I was the lone survivor, the attackers were government agents and they took me. I was lucky, the X-Men were already onto them and the base was raided before they could begin on me but I can still hear the screams, I can still see commandos carting bodies off God knows where. I- can you let me up? I'll show you my mark." Tony did and they all saw the brand seared into Scott Lang's skin. "I'm sorry, man. I should've known better."

"Yeah, you should've." Tony asked "Does the suit contain your power or-"

"No, the suit has nothing to do with my mutation." Scott pulled a couple things out of the belt, "Here, make sure this gets to Hope van Dyne."

"Sure thing. What's your name?"

"Scott Lang. I'm just gonna sit and wait." He sat down near the heap of defeated Avengers.

First, Tony called Everett Ross, the Deputy Task Force Commander of the Joint Counterterrorism Center to pick up the Rogue Avengers and Zemo. Then he called Hank McCoy to get to work on deals for Barton, Lang and Wilson but especially Lang, sharing the man's story. Lastly, he called Professor Charles Xavier and let him know he had to use his powers, giving him a heads up on the Accords and explaining them to his old mentor. As a young mutant, Tony helped reunite the Professor and Magneto, basically just by being an intelligent metal bender.

A month after the fight, Tony escorted two men into the cellblock the Rogues were being held in. Instead of fresh prison uniforms, Lang and Barton had been issued civvies since they were being released into the custody of the X-Men (SHIELD's Index was immensely helpful in securing their plea deals as it outlined the steps taken to gain control over certain key assets, namely Clint Barton and Laura Kinney). They were waiting patiently in their cells when the three men entered, or rather the three mutants. Erik had arrived in time to take the fall for Tony's handiwork and after most of his team turned on him for lying about the Accords, nobody was willing to believe Rogers when he claimed that it was Tony not Magneto who did the damage. Magneto also offered to repair as much as he could, a show of good faith towards the Accords. Tony pointed out he was authorized to recruit other Enhanced to bring the Rogues in. All in all, not a bad day's work but from Rogers' perspective, Magneto was unfairly biased against Wanda, even though most of his words in regards to her were thinly veiled threats about keeping her powers restrained through humane means. Amusingly, Rogers didn't recognize Magneto when he, Tony and some guy in a weird wheelchair entered the cellblock. Barnes had been transferred into the X-Men's custody after only a few days once he'd signed papers consenting to telepathic treatment. "Who are these people, Tony?"

Tony shot an amused look at the other two, older men, which was shared by everyone except Rogers and Maximoff. "Wow, how did I not notice how truly dense he is before now?"

"You were blinded by the same legend as many of his cohorts, Anthony," answered the man in the wheelchair.

"Right." Tony turned back to Rogers as the third man who entered with him removed his hat, "I believe you've all already met Magneto when he kicked your asses in Germany. With us today is Professor Charles Xavier, he runs a school for mutants and is one of the founders of the X-Men. We have some news for Wanda before the Professor signs Lang and Barton out of here."

Tony passed an envelop to a guard, who in turn passed it through the convoluted system that their meals and laundry went through. "Wanda Maximoff, legal daughter of Marya and Django Maximoff, biological daughter of Magda Maximoff and Erik Lehnsherr. Okay, well that's not entirely true, your mother knew your father as Henryk Gurzsky but still, genetically the same guy. Your mother barely survived an angry mob who came after her, your father and your sister. The last one didn't survive and your father's vindictive nature caused a schism. You and Pietro were born after that. Marya and Magda were sisters, your aunt and uncle died in that explosion, and your father spent most of your life regretting scaring your mother off. Now," Erik rolled up one sleeve, "How do you think he feels about two of his children joining a neo-Nazi organization and submitting to experimentation by said neo-Nazis in the name of revenge when acting in the name of revenge is what cost him said children and their mother? Fun fact: HYDRA's experiments didn't just awaken your mutations, they enhanced your mutations. Your brother has a healing factor that's, at most, a third as strong as Sabretooth or Wolverine's so he probably won't age slow but it did keep him on the edge of death when the drone used lethal force. Luckily the Professor went looking for mutant survivors of Sokovia in the hopes of saving them from what happened to Lang. Upon meeting your father, hearing the truth and doing a little bit of research on me, Pietro chose to let go of his hate and become an X-Man, even if he'll never be able to go into the field. He's alive but he's not fit for combat. Still, he might pay you a visit. Seeing as you're likely to get a life sentence out of all this, he's got all the time in the world." Wanda opened the envelope to find DNA test results, a letter from Pietro and an overview of her brother's condition along with a revised birth certificate, giving her US citizenship through her father. "I'm guessing Erik will want to have some words with you in private but the Professor and I have promised to keep an eye on him to keep him from killing any of you."

Tony turned back to Rogers one more time "Carter and Romanoff were arrested almost three weeks ago, when they teamed up to break you out like you asked in your letters. Stop trying to contact them, the more references you make to past actions, the more charges get added to their list. We've already got you and Romanoff on aiding and abetting a murder, knowing about a crime and saying nothing makes you complicit in the crime so shut up."

Then to Wilson, "The US Air Force has decided not to press charges since technically Romanoff stole the wings and you could, plausibly, have been under the impression that Captain America requisitioned them. Don't incriminate yourself, you're still on the hook for Romania and Germany but that's mostly aiding and abetting. Be glad you didn't know what it was really about, if you had then you'd also be complicit in my parents' murders." WIlson's mouth snapped shut from where he'd been about to protest the truth. "Yeah, Zemo had no intention of awakening the Soldiers, just showing me a video of Barnes killing my parents, thereby exposing Rogers' lies in the hopes we'd kill each other, thus destroying the Avengers from the inside out. All of your Avengers' status, if you had such status, has been revoked. You and Rogers have been dishonorably discharge. The walking flag over there never did formally retire or actively serve since waking up so there's some debate on whether he should have charges relating to military law brought against him or tax evasion. Did you know that Rogers has never paid a dime in taxes in his entire life? Personally, I think that's a moot point but it'll be a nice note on how important every law is and how nobody is above the law, I suppose. The announcement of your discharge came with a reminder that soldiers don't have to follow unethical orders, which wasn't the case in Rogers day. In fact, the Nazis are the reason that soldiers can refuse bad orders. There were some Nazis who honestly were just following orders, they weren't believers in the Third Reich, they were believers in continuing their own survival. If you don't believe me, ask the Auschwitz survivor who came with me."

Erik said "I believe you have said more than enough." Tony nodded. Erik started with Rogers, who was on one end of the semicircle of cells. "I sincerely wish you had never been defrosted. Perhaps if the Captain America legend had been allowed to die then my son would not have days where he cannot breathe unaided, perhaps my daughter would have been able to learn accountability, perhaps so many tragedies could have been avoided, perhaps millions would not have been endangered because you rediscovered HYDRA, perhaps my people would have gotten their basic rights years sooner instead of having to negotiate for them, even now. Most of all, I wish that people had been honest about your accomplishments and more than honest about your faults. Did you know the history books sometimes claim you led the liberation of Auschwitz? History books, not comic books, historians honestly believe that you liberated concentration camps. Looking at you now, I can tell you have no idea what a concentration camp is, much less what Auschwitz is. These numbers on my arms, they are all I have left of my parents. When the Nazis rose to power, my family fled to Poland. When the Nazis conquered Poland, we were rounded up and shipped to a place called Auschwitz, where these numbers were inked into my flesh and similar numbers were inked into the flesh of my parents. Everything we owned was seized. If someone bound for a camp had a gold tooth, it was pried out so the state could claim the gold. My mother was killed right in front of me when I was twelve, I have no idea what happened to my father, I know only that he did not survive. Many didn't, most estimates place the death toll in the millions. Despite numbering prisoners and keeping good records, there is no way of knowing how many died. You do not care. You demonstrated that when you placed one man above the world. Unfortunately, many mutants identify with you and many people view you as the poster child for the Enhanced, mutants are judged by your actions. Had you not taken the law into your own hands, had you simply refused to sign and left it at that then we would all be equal, we would be more than statistics but you did not and so we must continue to fight for our rights, a fight that should have ended over a month ago."

He skipped Wanda and looked at Barton, "I will not waste my breath lecturing you on your responsibilities as a father but I will say this, your father-in-law is not a man of words. He is the best there is at what he does and what he does is fight. You are about to walk a thin line between friend and foe in the eyes of the Wolverine. Did you know that men carry the X-gene and pass it down? Your children were nearly forcibly gene-tested before Dr. Stark informed us of their location. You, unintentionally, helped us and for that, I will ensure Wolverine does not kill you on sight when you meet."

Next was Lang, "Your daughter manifested, which is the only reason you will be able to see her. She is American and our school caters mostly to American mutant children. Do not expect your ex-wife or Dr. Pym to be pleased with you, nor should you expect them not to share their displeasure with you simply because you are not nearby."

When he looked at Wilson, he wondered if the man had asked to be housed away from Rogers. "You are very lucky, Mr. Wilson. You have no powers, no relations of interest, nothing for the likes of Ross and his ilk to take. You are simply a fool but you are a fool who is likely to spend most, if not all of his remaining days confined to a single room. The only reason you are not being remanded to solitary confinement is because nobody wishes to see what effects isolation has on mentally unstable Enhanced and nobody cares enough to differentiate between baseline and Enhanced Rogue Avengers."

Turning back to his daughter, he told her "I may wish many things on Rogers but when I look at you, I can only see how I failed you. You are my own flesh and blood, I feel an instinctive connection to you. Were you not my daughter, you would be in the most danger from me. I have given the administration of this prison a family heirloom to give to you once you calm down and cease your senseless hate. Until you begin accepting responsibility, I fear for those you project blame onto and will not endanger them by insisting on giving you something I could use as a weapon were our roles reversed. You are my daughter, I will never see you as some helpless little girl and one who knows the likes of either Mystique or Miss Romanoff never should but Rogers has demonstrated time and again how dangerously naïve and ignorant he is. You may write letters to your brother, if or when the administration deems you safe enough to entrust with a writing utensil, but make no mistake, Pietro has no obligation to respond."

Charles took his turn last and it was just icing on the cake, he was too polite and proper to use insults, instead merely lecturing them on their behavior and the consequences of such before turning to the guard to ask that Lang and Barton be released. They were taken away to be processed out before Romanoff and Carter were placed in their cells. Tony asked Sharon "Did you know that HYDRA killed my parents and Aunt Peg covered it up to take SHIELD global? Did you know Rogers and Romanoff knew Barnes killed my parents and went searching for him using my resources with the intention of bringing him back to live off my money? Did you even know that Rogers completed only one week of a twelve week basic training course? No, well some intelligence agent you are. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. After all, you are SHIELD's answer to the Red Room." Then he turned and walked out. Erik expressed his displeasure in a dehumanized assassin being seen as a representative of mutantkind while Charles was more general with his disappointment in the two women, who had a chance to achieve legendary greatness, to be a beacon for the future but chose to tie themselves down to a facet of the past. Erik didn't really care about Carter but used her presence to justify a short rant about the evils of humanity's hubris, Charles didn't let him preach mutant superiority much at the school because it caused students undue stress when they were faced with the we-are-the-future view of mutants. Only senior X-Men trainees got that education, and that was only to teach them how to see things from the enemy's perspective.

In the wake of the so-called Civil War, Tony moved the Avengers operation to the school briefly while the compound was repaired and renovated to accommodate more people. With King T'Challa, Ambassador McCoy, Magneto, Professor X and several others who didn't need naming, he was able to take his warnings of an impending invasion straight to the top. The hardest part of that meeting was keeping them from 'temporarily' turning the Accords into a superhuman selective service. Basically, everyone on the side of the Enhanced threatened to dodge such a draft and focus on getting themselves off-world in case of another alien invasion, leaving the humans no choice but to keep the Accords as they were intended. Magneto warned mutants to be careful about how much trust they put in the arbitrator of the Accords but gave the treaty his support nonetheless, Professor X and his X-Men told people that change is the result of give-and-take relationships, King T'Challa shared the legacy of the Black Panther with the world as he signed as both a leader and Enhanced person, Tony Stark highlighted the anonymity clause and focused attention on the people who gave their lives to bring the Accords to the world's attention thereby letting Zemo know where they'd be at the first signing. With all of that, the Accords persevered and overcame the Rogues. Signers of the Accords outside the superhero community had their own reasons for signing. There were those who only wished to claim the protections granted by the Accords, others unwilling to go full superhero but willing to provide back up for the superheroes as needed and others still who wished to escape their countries' oppressive laws by going above them. The Accords were designed in part to grant mutants their basic human rights around the world, they simply grew from that into a way to track those who would protect the planet in the coming war. There was even a clause in the Accords that allowed a representative to sign for a group of people, which tied in with the anonymity protections that both T'Chaka and Tony agreed were non-negotiable. When he took over as Sorcerer Supreme, Doctor Stephen Strange signed on behalf of an ancient order of monks called the Masters of the Mystic Arts. Although many saw them as a cult, nobody could deny their abilities.

Tony invited Pepper over just before the Avengers were set to move back into the compound, which had been signed over to the UN as a training compound for Enhanced volunteers in addition to being the main base for America's primary protectors. Their UN status made it easier for foreign heroes to come coordinate with them since the property was technically exempt from sovereign border restrictions being jointly owned by all states equally. Talk about a tax write-off, Tony thought ruefully when he remembered how many superhero teams came out of the woodwork in the wake of that announcement. There was a set of standards that every base had to meet before the UN would take over ownership and pay off any outstanding taxes. Just before Tony moved the Avengers back (or at least those who wanted to move in, Vision was enjoying his time at the school where being non-human was normal) he invited Pepper over to meet and review what the facility's UN ownership status meant and how he could make up for lost time with the board, who sorta expected him to go on regular inventing benders that revolutionized the tech industry and made the company billions overnight but he hadn't had a chance to go on one of those in a while with the Professor remembering how he was as a student and having Magneto help him enforce a curfew. Man did he have a lot of memories at the X-Mansion, most of them better than his memories at his father's mansion but new information was making him look at those memories differently.

Suddenly Tony had to duck as Erik got tired of waiting for him to focus and threw the ball at his head to force his focus. Ball was perhaps too tame a word, it was a heap of metal that was originally smooth and round but after being used to help many mutants with kinetic abilities gain control, it more closely resembled a crumpled wad of paper than a ball. Only teachers with kinetic abilities, like magnokinesis (Magneto's power) were allowed to use it. Tony knew there was a much larger ball that was more like a bolder but still made of metal used to help students with super-strength, often simply serving as a punching bag and wondered if he should've given Rogers something similar instead of replacing his reinforced bags.

Regardless, Magneto began pulling the ball back towards him, again aiming to go through Tony, forcing his former student to focus. The game they were playing took a lot of skill and served as a team building exercise. If Tony or Erik failed to move in sync, they were liable to tear the ball apart instead of passing it between them and making it orbit around them. The ability to let go at the precise moment another takes control was a hard-earned skill. Without practice, the results of attempting such a feat were more like a game of mutant tug-of-war. As Pepper approached them on the commandeered the basketball court (because the Danger Room was in use and, oh yeah, made of metal) Erik broke off the rims of the hoops and threw them at Tony, who caught them without a backwards glance and proceeded to throw the ball hard at the older man, letting go just as Erik caught it. "Hey, Pep." Tony made a T with his hands and let go of one of the hoops as Erik set the ball down, each metal bender fixing one hoop. He turned to his CEO and future fiance, fingers crossed, "Surprise."

"Rogers wasn't lying."

"No, he lied a lot but not about this. I'm sure you can think of at least ten reasons letting word get out that Tony Stark has Magneto's powers would be bad. Personally, I can think of a few million and I'm not talking about money."

"Of course. What were you two just doing?"

"Training exercise." Tony explained as he walked up to her "Passing a ball made of metal between us, letting go just as the other one catches it, takes a lot of work, y'know."

"The Board-"

Tony held out one hand and his phone flew to him, causing Pepper to blink. Unlocking his phone, he pressed one button before turning it off and pocketing it. "Plans for the next six generations of Stark Phones, three different video game ideas to prepare people for the impending invasion, a true VR console with built-in safety features to make sure people don't stay online too long and starve or something, several laptops, a few ideas for upgrading medical scanners, about a dozen different prosthetic designs that I based off Barnes' arm, a rough outline of psychic interfacing for psychiatry- basically a memory machine- and a few other odds and ends, like adapters and stuff. I haven't been able to build anything, which is why I sent all my work to my underlings in R&D with a more thorough rundown of what's what but we should be able to get something to present to board within the next two weeks if my VPs can delegate properly."

"Wow, okay then. The UN ownership of the compound basically means the Accords oversight committee are your landlords since they're the ones who technically own the base."

"I know, I just needed an excuse to get you out here to see how you'd handle the mutant thing."

"You were testing me?"

"Well, I figured this is the best place. The Professors are already working on educational briefings to debunk the myths that surround mutants. If you had a negative reaction, they could talk you through it."

"So I'd be their sounding board?"

"They're definitely looking for a sounding board, I think their students' parents are probably gonna get the talk first if they can't find someone more neutral. Do you want to hear what they have to say? If you have any questions, the headmaster here coined the term mutant."

"I'll be sure to talk to him."

Tony took a deep breath and nodded mutely, smiling at her. He was a little surprise when Erik didn't pick up the ball and throw it at his head after he simply watched Pepper walk inside but maybe he'd already been scolded for throwing the ball at Tony's head twice when he knew the younger mutant wasn't paying attention. Tony wouldn't put it past the Professor. "Care to call it a day?" asked Erik instead "After all, this was just an excuse to show Ms. Potts what you can do."

"And a chance for the younger students to see the level of control the X-Men strive towards but yeah. I gotta make a few calls, check in with some other people."

Thanos' army came seeking the last two Stones, Mind and Time. They came and they were slaughtered by the combined might of Earth's trained Enhanced. Tony threw the Gauntlet at Pietro Maximoff and put all his might into holding Thanos down, the young mutant had insisted on joining the fight with his specially designed exoskeleton keeping him steady. As he let go of the Gauntlet, trusting it to land where he intended, he gritted his teeth with the strain of holding Thanos steady and said through the coms, "Make a wish, Speedy."

When he put the Gauntlet on, the Guardians yelled for someone to grab him. Their warnings of the Infinity Stones overpowering anyone who tried to hold them echoed in the minds of many and everyone made a mad dash to split the strain. With a snap of his fingers, Pietro healed himself, testing the waters a bit. A second snap eliminated all who were loyal to Thanos, freeing his allies to all crowd around him and share the strain. His third snap took care of Thanos himself, freeing Tony to join the crowd. He snapped his fingers a total of seven times. The fourth snap repaired the damage done during the Infinity War; that time, he nearly wished to fix the damage done by superpowered battles but feared what Soul and Mind might do with that. Their game of ultimate keep away began the second Thanos claimed Vision's Stone, and now Pietro held the power of infinity in his hand or rather on his hand. His fifth snap restored the Stones containers, laying them out in front of him. His sixth snap used only half of the Stones and made the Gauntlet harder to use because he took the Soul Stone's sacrifice away when he restored Gamora. The last Snap scattered the Stones anew, restoring them to their containers. Suddenly, he was exhausted. Their alien allies looked at him in amazement. "Seven snaps," said Rocket Raccoon, "You made seven snaps. What'd you do, humie?!"

"Fixed as much as I could." Pietro said between pants, waving to the repaired battlefield. "My last snap destroyed the Gauntlet, that was an accident."

"And your first?" asked Cyclops.

"Just healed myself." At the general looks of disbelief his answer earned, Quicksilver defended "I wanted to see how much using the Gauntlet hurt before I could accidentally kill myself for no reason."

"You wanted to make sure it worked for you so if you did kill yourself using it, whatever you willed to happen would still happen?" clarified Nebula.

"Exactly."

"That makes sense," said Gamora as she sat up, Peter 'call me Star-Lord' Quill hurrying to give her a hand up off the ground, "We wouldn't want you to die trying to take out Thanos' army only to wish away a few Outriders."

"Still, he managed seven snaps," said Rocket, expressing his amazement.

"Healed myself, wiped out the army, erased Thanos from existence, repaired the battlefields, restored the Stones' containers, restored Gamora- the Stones started fighting me after that- and scattered the Stones. I think that since I am not familiar with the wider galaxy and could not even think of a destination, much less pick four, the Stones should be harder to find now. The last snap destroyed the Gauntlet by accident." Pietro yawned, "Could we continue this tomorrow? Or in a week?"

"Yeah," Gamora said "You should get some sleep." His father supported him as Pietro trudged off to find some food before he went to bed. If his first snap worked as intended, his father should have no need to support him as such again, or at least not as much as he had to when Pietro first met the man.


	2. Confrontations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 23 of What Superpower Should Tony Stark Have?

As they were processed out, Barton and Lang were each given a shot in the shoulder. Lang guessed "That must be the tracker."

"What happened to anklets?"

"Too easy to tamper with, I guess." They were sat on a bench to wait for Magneto and Professor X to sign them out rather than trust them alone on a jet. With a sneer, Magneto waved his hand and all of their restraints fell away while the Professor signed the last documents needed to take charge of them. The two men preceded the trio out and Tony ran around them to board the plane first, taking the pilot's seat. Magneto bent the metal straps to indicate where the two ex-cons should sit before locking the Professor's wheelchair in place and taking the copilot's seat. The two metal benders closed their eyes and appeared to almost be meditating for a moment before they took off.

Clint was practically shaking during the entire flight and he had trouble standing straight when it was time to disembark. Wolverine was waiting for him in the hangar but none of his companions were sympathetic to his plight, Tony placing a hand on his arm and all but dragging him towards his father-in-law, giving him one great big shove towards the man before seizing Lang's arm and leading him away. Magneto hung back to make sure Wolverine didn't kill him as promised and Clint was too terrified to move or make a sound, he couldn't defend himself if Wolverine did attack. When he heard the snikt of Wolverine's claws coming out, he was too petrified to even flinch. Wolverine popped the claws on one hand only then looked at Magneto before slugging him with the other so hard that he went flying. "You stay away from Laura. If she doesn't want to see you, she won't."

"Yes, sir."

He didn't even cry out as three blades cut into his side, not deep enough to damage any organs but enough to get the point across. Without looking, he could imagine Wolverine was retracting his claws as he placed his fist on Clint's side because he felt knuckles against his skin and Wolverine definitely didn't sink his claws all the way in. Clint's pretty sure he'd be dead if the mutant had. "Same goes for the kids."

"Of course." Wolverine got up and pulled Clint to his feet, shoving him towards the door, leaving Magneto to show him to the infirmary. He had to look when he lifted up his shirt for the doctor and he was actually surprised by how shallow the cuts were, how much restraint Wolverine showed. "Your doing?" He asked Magneto.

"No, Wolverine likely doesn't wish to rob his grandchildren of their father."

"Right." He deserved so much worse than this. What the fuck had he been thinking?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If there are any more ideas for expanding Metal Bending, leave them in the comments here but limit prompts for this story to this story, thank you


	3. Students and Mentors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How Magneto and Professor X got back together

Stupid mutant powers, how come nobody knew anything about metal bending? Tony thought to himself as he around Mutant Town, the people there were almost as clueless as the Professor had been but without the connection to Magneto that complicated things. Mutant Town was trashed, Tony would bet that was a combination of impoverished mutants living there and human bigots with nothing better to do than harass the residents. As such, the broken street lamps being further mangled in his aggravated state was hardly a big deal. A tall brunette man suddenly blocked Tony's path and the mutant teen equally suddenly realized he was lost. Strange for a human to be here, especially given the hour. Most M Town residents couldn't pass for human but maybe this guy was an exception. The man studied Tony, prompting him to cross his arms and stare up defiantly. Why was everyone taller than him? The man's hand shot out and Tony dodged on instinct, ingrained in him by some of his father's old army buddies. Hearing metal creaking, Tony glanced over to the street lights he'd accidentally destroyed and saw them self repair then he looked back at the man and felt stupid for not recognizing Magneto. "Did you know you're the only person who can teach me control like that?"

Magneto, or Erik as the Professor called him, looked at Tony. With a huff, Tony flicked his wrist and the nearest metal object, Erik's wristwatch, flew into the sky- or tried to because Magneto was wearing it- which prompted the man to study him again. "There's a school-"

"I know, I'm enrolled, I don't think they can handle my powers anymore. I was hoping to find a mutant here who could teach me but everyone, and I mean everyone, the Professor included, says you're it."

"Charles-"

"Has resorted to knocking me out to keep the school from imploding when I lose control beneath the mansion."

"Fine." Erik taught him the basics before sending him home. Tony made sure to set up a lesson for the next day after school.

During a break in his second lesson, they got to talking about why Magneto sent him back instead of recruiting him. They talked in circles for a bit before Tony drew his attention to the fact that they were talking in circles and called him out on his BS. Magneto sorta dropped off the face of the Earth for like a month after that. The next time Tony saw him, he was knocking on the front door of the school. Ignoring the anxious Beast trying to herd everyone to safety, Tony answered the door "Bout time. Gimme." With a fond sigh of exasperation, Erik handed over the helmet he was carrying before following Tony to the Professor's office, both of them ignoring Hank. Tony dropped into a seat in the office and studied the helmet, cutting into the two older mutants' conversation a few times to de-escalate the situation, call them out on their crap or fill awkward silences.

By the end of the day, he felt like he'd been adopted by a couple in the process of getting divorced who were considering getting back together. It was weird, even for mutants. On the upside, his training progressed much more swiftly after that and he was able to attend MIT on schedule instead of having to be held back for a lit class to avoid arousing his father's suspicion.


	4. Reunited

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pietro faces his sister in court

After much debate, it was decided that the bailiff would help Pietro stand from his wheelchair to be sworn in and help him into the witness chair, rather than risk draining the man or stressing his fragile lungs by trying to walk up to the witness stand all on his own. He also had to wear a watch, which would loudly beep to ensure he took his meds on time, the face of the watch was set to read out what medication he needed to take and was synced to his phone to do so, with a secondary alarm on his phone in case he ignored the primary. Wanda was already enraged by the fact that she couldn't use her powers, seeing what had become of her brother only worsened her mood. Before asking questions, the prosecutor asked for Pietro's written statement on the events surrounding the Sokovia disaster be read for the jury to save time and the judge approved the motion. Seeing Pietro hold an oxygen mask over his face and stare at his smart watch when he sat down showed how terrible his health was, there was no reason to drag his testimony out by asking questions that could be answered using his written statement. The prosecutor's first question was "Why do you think your memory is so poor during that time?"

"Well, my memory of the time immediately before I was shot is expected to be poor, due to blood loss, stress and trauma. Other than that, I don't know. I guess it's possible Wanda was in my head and left when she thought I was dead. Technically," his speech was slow due to his poor breathing and he had to stop entirely at that point to breathe from the mask, twisting the gauge with his other hand. Once he was able to breathe a bit easier, he turned the valve again and lowered the mask "I was dead. My powers only made it possible for me to be revived but I did die. I cannot say for sure but I guess, there's video somewhere if Wanda did use her powers on me then there'd be video of red mist coming from her hands. For some reason, the mist isn't always visible on the," he had to stop and think, "Other end. Sometimes you can only see it around her hands, just gotta look around you and see what's not right to figure out what she's doing. Maybe she's moving something or messing with someone's head, just gotta take in her surroundings to figure it out. Is that answer enough?" His watch beeped again, having alerted him while his statement was being read. He reached down and compared the labels of his meds to the name on his watch before reading the directions on the appropriate bottle and taking his medication.

"How extensive was the damage?"

"Some days I have to get an IV put in because my lungs won't work well enough for me to eat, remove the mask for a minute and I might suffocate. I believe Ultron has four creators, or something like that. Stark and Banner made the original Ultron program but it's my understanding that the program was basically in the idea stages or something. Wanda messed with Stark's head, probably scared him out of his mind. None of that woulda meant anything if not for the scepter, which was apparently sentient, if I read the report right, and hijacked the program's name. I'm not clear on anyone's involvement to be honest, except for Wanda's, I am quite sure she messed with his head but everything else goes right over my head."

"Wanda is your twin sister, can you tell the court why you're testifying against her?"

"Simply put, I can't support what she's done. Our parents were casualties in war, collateral damage. Now she's using that to create more collateral, more orphans like us. I couldn't even move, like at all, when I first woke up. Opening my eyes is literally all I could do, it was that bad so I had all the time in the world to think and stew in my hate. Once I could move a bit more, I was given an eye opener. People laughed at me for using ten year old logic in my twenties and I was shown the news about Stane's betrayal of Stark, everything was put into perspective. Wanda is my sister but I'm not blinded by that, I've been shown the facts."

"When you woke up?"

"I was in a coma for a while, nobody was sure I'd wake up after my body sustained so much damage. I will never be able to zip around like I used to, my lungs are fragile but they were shredded by the gunfire so it's still an improvement."

"Thank you, Mr. Maximoff. No more questions at this time."

"Defense, your witness."

"Mr. Maximoff, you were a part of HYDRA too. You even recounted your training and fighting the Avengers in your statement."

"Could you ask what you're going to ask? My lungs aren't very reliable right now."

"Why should we trust your word more than your sister's? Because you're injured and you claimed to see the light?"

"No. If you look at my actual statement, you'll see it was written in an essay format with cited sources. You can fact check most of what I wrote, my mind's not the most reliable so I had to use other sources to detangle the jumbles and I still didn't get them all." The attorney checked his materials and sure enough, Pietro did write his statement the way he said he did. "If you check public records, you'll see I also took a plea deal for my work with HYDRA. I'm basically on probation for life and that is probably partly because of my poor health, I'm not a threat anymore. I can't walk without a lot of help, much less run at super speed. I spend about 90% of my time with an oxygen mask over my face, the other 10% eating or talking. I usually sleep in the infirmary at the school where I am attempting to get my GED because I have to be hooked up to machines all night. As I said, some days I can't even take the mask off long enough to eat. If you can find a way for me to be a threat under those circumstances, I'm gonna have to call you on your paranoia." He put the mask on, watching the defense attorney flounder before admitting defeat. The bailiff approached to help him back into his chair, Pietro turned the mic around to keep his words from going on record "Can you grab the spare tank under the seat?" The bailiff obliged and watched Pietro move his line to the new tank, putting the old one in his bag and asking "Could you put this on the handles?" Once that was done, the bailiff transferred him and pushed him back to the gallery. The whole display practically won the prosecution its case, even though Wanda obviously didn't intend for Ultron to kill her brother but when her twin testified against her, it was game over. The way he almost flinched away from her when she turned to reach out to him was the final nail in the coffin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What'd everyone think?  
> Is Pietro’s sentence good? Keep in mind, he made his deal before Lagos.  
> Did I do Wanda justice with how angry she was about her powers being bound and how she scared her brother whose only contact with her since Sokovia had been through news reports?  
> How'd you like the sibling dynamic?  
> Did I overdo it on Pietro’s injuries? He was clearly shredded in the movie.  
> Comment please


End file.
